NATO CBRN Reachback Scientific Network Annual Meeting

NATO CBRN Reachback is a section residing at the JCBRN Defence COE that provides reachback capability to SHAPE, NATO’s operational commands, and deployed forces. Reachback capability aims to provide scientific and technical advice on CBRN issues in a comprehensive and timely manner. NATO CBRN Reachback is supported by its Scientific Network which is a network of Allies’ national CBRN capabilities and scientific organizations. The network plays a key role as it enables the staff to reach out to other experts for supportive materials or complementary knowledge.

The annual meetings give the community an opportunity to meet and advance their interoperability. It is a platform that allows the exchange of information and knowledge as well as the sharing of best practices and lessons learned. Each year the meeting focuses on different aspects of the reachback process.

This year’s meeting goal was to overall advance the reachback capability. National reachback capacities alongside other key stakeholders were invited. The first part of the meeting focused on the exchange of operating procedures between reachback capability providers. Consequently, the presentations aimed to establish a common operational picture by addressing some of the key threats within a CBRN environment. Lastly, complementary topics like modelling and simulation, open-source analysis and intelligence were discussed as they are important enablers to reachback activities.

The meeting reached its objectives and will further advance reachback capability through a tabletop exercise that will test the interoperability and effectiveness of this network. The tabletop exercise will proceed in October in support of NATO’s Exercise STEADFAST DUEL 2024.

Author: CIV Linda VAŘEKOVÁ